Appendix

Appendix A: Material preset types

Material Preset	Description	Available Options	Preview
DEFAULT	Resembles SketchUp material as closely as possible. SketchUp transparency is converted into uniform alpha transparency.
THIN TRANSLUCENT	Produces a single-sided translucent material, perfect for curtains and other non-volumetric objects. You can control the Transparency (%).
LACQUER	Represents a lacquered surface, like the finish on hardwood floors. Includes Reflections and Roughness parameters. When Roughness is set to 0, the material looks polished; at higher values, it looks like satin.
CERAMIC	This type describes a ceramic material with a glossy finish.
CAR PAINT	The material using this preset will resemble a car paint. When the ‘Metallic’ option is enabled, the paint will behave as if it contained uniformly spread metallic flakes.
COLORED METAL	This type is designed to give a metal appearance with pronounced reflections when the Roughness is less than 10.
MIRROR	Behaves like the surface of a mirror. Overrides the SketchUp material color.
THIN GLASS	An architectural glass. You can adjust the Metallic reflections, which may appear when coatings are added. This material is especially well‐suited to nonsolid, thin faced objects.
GLASS	Produces a volumetric glass that takes into account refractions inside the object. You can control the surface's Roughness and the intensity of the Reflections.
CLOUD	Cloud material preset for volumetric effects defined by a solid group component.
EMITTER	Turns a painted face into an emitter of light, whose power can be specified in different units. You can use Temperature to adjust the color/texture. You have the option to make the emitter invisible in the rendering or to make it “passive" (it will glow, but won't cast direct light).
BITMAP BASED	A PBR compliant preset that expects textures based on the Metallic/Roughness workflow. You can either manually assign the textures to the appropriate channels or use the folder icon to load all textures at once automatically, based on a single selected texture.

Appendix B: Network Rendering

Network rendering requires a setup of connected computers in a local network.

Starting Thea Node

Step 1

Windows: Extract the zipped file to a folder. Browse to the Windows64 folder and double-click on the TheaNode.exe file.
MacOS: Open Terminal.app (usually located in Applications > Utilities). Go into the \Mac64 folder using the "cd" command and press Enter. You could also write "cd," add a space, and then drag the Mac64 folder inside Terminal.
Then type ./TheaNode and press Enter.

Step 2

Open SketchUp and from the Thea Rendering Window, switch to the Rendering Tab and enable Network Rendering.

Step 3

Start rendering in Production Mode. The Network Tab in the Thea Rendering Window will start showing all the render nodes. There is no need to copy any asset for the render nodes to work properly as this happens automatically. The Thea Node tool does not need to be licensed to work properly.

Appendix C: Installing Thea Libraries

Downloading and Installing Thea Libraries

Libraries can be downloaded by visiting the following link: https://www.thearender.com/libraries/
The libraries that you will download are packed in zip format. Before proceeding to the installation, you need to first extract the .lib.thea file. Once done, go to SketchUp and from the main menu, select: Extensions > Thea Render > Tools > Install Library
A new window will pop up asking you to select the .lib.thea file you wish to install. Select the file and then click on 'Open'. More information will be displayed in the next window asking you to check the 'Accept License Agreement' and click on the install icon on the left.
After the installation has been completed, you will get a notification informing you about the path where the library has been installed. The installer uses the Thea Data/Materials folder by default. The new library can be accessed from the Thea Content Browser.